The Kite Runner - Book Report/Review Example

The Kite Runner: Friendship/Loyalty The Kite Runner is the first novel by an Afghan born American Khaled Hosseini, which he published in 2003. The novel is an incredible tale of friendship and loyalty showed through two young Afghan boys, Amir and Hassan, who were very close friends despite their differences in social classes. The novel shows tumultuous situations in Afghanistan and much more political reform. However, the core of the story is the friendship between Amir and Hassan that defies social classism, and Amir’s shameless betrayal of his close friend.

Amir’s father is a wealthy Sunni man with social standing living in Kabul, Afghanistan. The family lives with servants, a Shi’a man called Ali and his son Hassan. Amir and Hassan are age mates and they forged a brotherly love. Amir says, “Hassan never denied me anything” (Hosseini 4) proving that Hassan was true in his friendship. Amir’s father, despite his social standing and tribal and religious differences adore Hassan and regard Ali as his best friend. It is this apparent affinity of his father to Hassan that becomes a stumbling block in Amir’s friendship with Hassan.

He searches for reasons to hate Hassan and get rid of both him and his father. With that objective, he soon learns from his father’s friends that the Hazara tribe, to which Hassan and his father Ali belonged, were considered inferior people. Amir begins to entertain the ideas of tribal, religious and class differences for the first time and discovers that Hassan and his father are ‘worthless’ creatures while previously, he believed, “we were kids who had learned to crawl together, and no history, ethnicity, society, or religion” (Hosseini 25).

His perception changed as now he knew that he was rich and Sunni, Hassan was poor and Shi’a and he lives with jealously and disgust to the fact that his father could be smothered by such lowly creatures like Hassan and his father, Ali.I read from Amir’s actions that he has a lot of jealousy towards Hassan. This especially comes out when Hassan is attacked by boys from the dominant Pashtun tribe, members of the privileged Sunni class, and Amir does not come to his aid. However, Hassan continued to say, “Amir Agha and I are friends” (Hosseini 43).

Furthermore, Amir allowed the boys to brutally abuse Hassan. Hosseini reveals how Amir is filled with shame, especially after coming to terms with the fact that he did not help his friend because he was partly jealous of him, and also because of his cowardice. To redeem his integrity, he sets out to set up Hassan and his father for a greater shame that would see them leave his home and apparently relieve his problem and pain. His new act of treachery, however, only serves to magnify his shame.

Amir proves Assef’s statement to be true, which was, “Someday youll wake up from your little fantasy and learn just how good of a friend he is” (Hosseini 43). In the period of political tragedy and war that follows, Amir’s father takes refuge with his family in Fremont, California. Hassan and his father, being poor, do not have this option and are left to suffer the brunt of the war. Twenty years later, Amir can still not forgive himself for betraying his best friend and he embarks on a journey back to Afghanistan to try to help Hassan and his family.

He is quick to identify himself with Afghans as an entity and not the differences in tribe, religion and classes when a driver from the Hazara tribe, who was driving him back to Kabul, doubted his intentions and genuineness for coming back to Afghanistan. These actions by Amir go a long way to illustrate the theme of friendship, and how important it is to remain loyal to friends, in the novel.Works CitedHosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Penguin Classics, 2004.